The 2012 Presidential election is being fiercely contested by Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Barack Obama . Both candidates are using the Internet to help their campaigns woo voters, volunteers and campaign contributions. But who has the better Website? The WebAward judges take a closer look…
Romney vs Obama Website Challenge
The Web Marketing Association has been judging Websites through their annual WebAward Competition for Website development since 1997. More than 27,000 site evaluations have been tabulated during that period and they took up the task of evaluating both candidates’ Websites.
During the second week of October 2012, 61 Internet Website experts, who serve as WebAward competition judges, reviewed both www.mittromney.com and www.barackobama.com using the same criteria used in the annual WebAwards program. The sites were judged side by side based on the seven criteria of a successful Website.
Here are the results:
Design – Asked “which Website has the most pleasing design?” 60.7% of the WebAward judges selected the Obama site over 39.3% for the Romney Website.
Innovation – Website innovation also went in favor of Barack Obama . The vast majority of WebAward judges (68.3%) thought the Obama Website seems more innovative, while only 31.7% favored Romney’s.
Content – In terms of having the most appealing content, judges again selected the Obama Website over Mitt Romney ‘s Website, although by a narrower margin than the first two criteria. 54.1% of the WebAward judges felt barackobama.com has more appealing content for visitors compared to 45.9% for mittromney.com. WebAward judges also found that the Obama Website is more effective for telling the candidate’s story and attracting contributions and voters to its cause (55.9% Obama vs 44.1% Romney).
Ease of use – President Obama’s Website was seen as easier to use by the WebAward judges than Governor Romney’s. 63.3% selected barackobama.com as easier to use compared to 36.7% of WebAward judges who felt mittromney.com was easier.
Copywriting – It is obvious that both campaigns have excellent writers on staff. Neither Websites have any of the editing issues some large organizations can experience. However, the WebAward judges gave the advantage to the Obama site (62.7% over the Romney site 37.3%).
Interactivity – Interactivity makes a Website more than just an online billboard and both candidates were effective in giving visitors to their Websites plenty to see and do. Nevertheless, once again the WebAward judges gave the edge regarding interactivity to the Obama Website (70.7%) over the Romney Website (29.3%).
Technology – Use of technology is evident in both candidates’ Websites, however, the clear favorite for the WebAward judges was barackobama.com winning 70.7% of the votes compared to mittromney.com with only 29.3% of the votes.
“Regardless of who you will be voting for in the next presidential election, Websites are playing an ever increasingly important role in how candidates get their messages across to the American voters,” said William Rice , President of the Web Marketing Association. “Based on the findings of this survey by some of the top Internet professionals available today, the Web Marketing Association names barackobama.com the winner of the Romney vs Obama Website Challenge. We wish both candidates the best of luck in their efforts to become the next President of the United States in the November election.”
Impact of Voting Preference
When the WebAward judges were asked “If the election was to be held today. Which candidate would you be more likely to vote for?” 43.3% responded Barack Obama , 18.3% responded Mitt Romney , 5% voted neither and 16.7% reported that they are a non-US judge and can not vote for anyone in a US election.
When judges who plan to vote for either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama are removed from the tabulation, results still remain in favor of barackobama.com, although the margins narrow in each of the criteria. The one difference is that for non-decided judges, Romney’s website is seen as being more effective in terms of content (63.4%) than Obama’s (36.6).
Specific comments from the judges and the study methodology can be seen on the Web Marketing Association Blog.
Source: http://www.webmarketingassociation.org/
